Is 2009 Sweet Lou's swan song?
Piniella's tired look indicative of frustrating season
July 22, 2009, 2:18 PM
By: Nick Friedell
Lou Piniella always looks worn out when he walks into the press conference room after games at Wrigley Field. Win or lose, he usually has a tired look and gives off every indication that he'd rather be doing anything other than speaking to the media about his mediocre team.
It's hard to blame him for feeling this way -- if you had to watch the Cubs on a daily basis, you would probably be emotionally and physically exhausted, too. But Piniella is 65 years old, and each time he steps in front of the cameras with those hang-dog expressions, the whispers surrounding his future begin to get louder and are only going to continue to do so.
Columnist Neil Hayes wrote in Wednesday's Sun-Times that "The Lou Piniella Era in Chicago appears to be winding down at a point when it should be reaching its crescendo."
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Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
It's been a frustrating season for Lou Piniella. Will he choose to leave the Cubs' dugout when it's over?
The point of his column being that Piniella doesn't deserve the majority of the blame if he finishes his reign as Cubs manager without a World Series because there are issues with the team that are simply out of his control. The argument being that Piniella, no matter how hard he tries, can't get Alfonso Soriano to turn into a better all-around player, he can't get Milton Bradley to change his personality and he can't get Rich Harden to pitch better during day games at Wrigley.
The thing is, Hayes isn't the only person around town thinking about the veteran manager's future. Twice over the past week I've heard people wonder aloud what Piniella is going to do after this season. In the press box at a White Sox game last weekend, media members were openly wondering who would take over for Piniella, with Cubs color analyst Bob Brenly, Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg and San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy all being mentioned as possible candidates.
As much as I enjoy covering Piniella on a regular basis at Wrigley, and I'd like to see him stick around, I'm convinced more and more that this will be his final year in the dugout.
He just doesn't seem to be having much fun anymore. "The Cubs Experience," as my colleague Melissa Isaacson so aptly dubbed managing/playing on the North Side, is catching up with Piniella more than ever. As Melissa pointed out, Piniella never fully grasped what he was getting into when he signed on to lead the Cubs. He didn't understand how intense the media spotlight was, he didn't get how demanding a schedule chock full of day games could be and he certainly didn't seem clear on the type of attention his team would draw on a daily basis.
That attention is much easier to deal with when your team is 30 games over .500 and on its way to the playoffs for the second year in a row, as was the case in 2008. But that attention becomes a major burden when your team is swept out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year, as was the case last October. If you want to point to a specific time in Piniella's tenure when things began to go south, look no further than October 4, 2008 -- the day the Dodgers finished off the Cubs in the NLDS in Los Angeles. By almost all accounts, Piniella was genuinely miffed at the way his team performed, and that confusion and frustration has carried over during certain periods this season. Much like last October, Piniella doesn't seem to have the answers as to why his team is struggling so badly. His favorite postgame response is "I don't know."
When I first heard him utter that phrase I thought he was just using it as a verbal crutch because he didn't want to go into specifics about what was ailing his club, but the more I'm around him, the more I know he is being serious when he says it. He really doesn't know what else to do to help out his struggling team. People have questioned whether he should show more fire in and out of the dugout and whether that may provide a spark to his mediocre club, but if that were all it took, Piniella would have tried that tactic several times already. The bottom line is that he's simply run out of answers. He doesn't know what else he can do to help out this underachieving bunch and he's tired of tired of trying to figure out the answer.
Sweet Lou appears to be about ready to pull the plug on his own personal "Cubs Experience," no matter if his team can turn things around or not.
Piniella's tired look indicative of frustrating season
July 22, 2009, 2:18 PM
By: Nick Friedell
Lou Piniella always looks worn out when he walks into the press conference room after games at Wrigley Field. Win or lose, he usually has a tired look and gives off every indication that he'd rather be doing anything other than speaking to the media about his mediocre team.
It's hard to blame him for feeling this way -- if you had to watch the Cubs on a daily basis, you would probably be emotionally and physically exhausted, too. But Piniella is 65 years old, and each time he steps in front of the cameras with those hang-dog expressions, the whispers surrounding his future begin to get louder and are only going to continue to do so.
Columnist Neil Hayes wrote in Wednesday's Sun-Times that "The Lou Piniella Era in Chicago appears to be winding down at a point when it should be reaching its crescendo."
[+] Enlarge
Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesIt's been a frustrating season for Lou Piniella. Will he choose to leave the Cubs' dugout when it's over?
The point of his column being that Piniella doesn't deserve the majority of the blame if he finishes his reign as Cubs manager without a World Series because there are issues with the team that are simply out of his control. The argument being that Piniella, no matter how hard he tries, can't get Alfonso Soriano to turn into a better all-around player, he can't get Milton Bradley to change his personality and he can't get Rich Harden to pitch better during day games at Wrigley.
The thing is, Hayes isn't the only person around town thinking about the veteran manager's future. Twice over the past week I've heard people wonder aloud what Piniella is going to do after this season. In the press box at a White Sox game last weekend, media members were openly wondering who would take over for Piniella, with Cubs color analyst Bob Brenly, Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg and San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy all being mentioned as possible candidates.
As much as I enjoy covering Piniella on a regular basis at Wrigley, and I'd like to see him stick around, I'm convinced more and more that this will be his final year in the dugout.
He just doesn't seem to be having much fun anymore. "The Cubs Experience," as my colleague Melissa Isaacson so aptly dubbed managing/playing on the North Side, is catching up with Piniella more than ever. As Melissa pointed out, Piniella never fully grasped what he was getting into when he signed on to lead the Cubs. He didn't understand how intense the media spotlight was, he didn't get how demanding a schedule chock full of day games could be and he certainly didn't seem clear on the type of attention his team would draw on a daily basis.
That attention is much easier to deal with when your team is 30 games over .500 and on its way to the playoffs for the second year in a row, as was the case in 2008. But that attention becomes a major burden when your team is swept out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year, as was the case last October. If you want to point to a specific time in Piniella's tenure when things began to go south, look no further than October 4, 2008 -- the day the Dodgers finished off the Cubs in the NLDS in Los Angeles. By almost all accounts, Piniella was genuinely miffed at the way his team performed, and that confusion and frustration has carried over during certain periods this season. Much like last October, Piniella doesn't seem to have the answers as to why his team is struggling so badly. His favorite postgame response is "I don't know."
When I first heard him utter that phrase I thought he was just using it as a verbal crutch because he didn't want to go into specifics about what was ailing his club, but the more I'm around him, the more I know he is being serious when he says it. He really doesn't know what else to do to help out his struggling team. People have questioned whether he should show more fire in and out of the dugout and whether that may provide a spark to his mediocre club, but if that were all it took, Piniella would have tried that tactic several times already. The bottom line is that he's simply run out of answers. He doesn't know what else he can do to help out this underachieving bunch and he's tired of tired of trying to figure out the answer.
Sweet Lou appears to be about ready to pull the plug on his own personal "Cubs Experience," no matter if his team can turn things around or not.
